


Extensive Research

by oddtwist



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Character Study, F/M, Guilty Pleasures, Sexual Tension, Twisted and Fluffy Feelings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-14
Updated: 2016-02-14
Packaged: 2018-05-20 02:19:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5988781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oddtwist/pseuds/oddtwist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Giles wants to study Buffybot in the absence of his Slayer. Strange happenings ensue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Old fic rewritten and reposted here. The first chapter was meant to be a one shot, but after several requests for an update, I wrote some more chapters. I never fnished it in the past, but with a holiday coming up, I thought I'd give it another try here on AO3.

Giles smelled his chance when Buffy announced that she and Dawn would spend some quality time together; they would go shopping. The Watcher had asked Willow if she could assemble and activate his Slayer's artificial alter ego. He knew that Buffy would rather have it destroyed, but he wanted to study the device. They might be able to use it in their fight against this all powerful enemy Glorificus. If Buffybot was convincing enough they might be able to use her to trick Glory. Maybe they could even make a Dawn robot to lure Glory into going after the wrong key.

Giles had arranged to meet Willow after closing time while Buffy was still on the town with her sister. When he entered the exercise room at the back of the shop, he was a bit disappointed that the Wicca still hadn't turned up. But he soon found out that Willow had apparently sneaked in while he was busy with customers, because he discovered the robot near the couch, sitting stock still on the floor, like a statue - deactivated. Giles decided to wait a few minutes before calling to find out when Willow would return, so he settled himself on the couch to study the robot.

It was a true masterpiece. He really couldn't tell the difference between this sophisticated piece of machinery and the original. He was startled out of his admiration when the robot suddenly opened its eyes and looked straight at him.

"Hi, Giles!" it said and gave him a bright smile.

Giles smiled back, pleasantly surprised.

Good old Willow. She had already done the job. He could always rely on her.

"Didn't Willow stay?"

"No, she and Tara are researching a spell." The robot said.

"Well, I'm glad she managed to get you started. And she even repaired a glitch it seems."

Buffy gave him a puzzled look. She had been trying out this new trance thing Willow and Tara had taught her and had been deep inside herself when Giles had entered. On a subconscious level she had been aware of him but hadn't broken off her meditation. It had taken her long enough to reach this level of concentration and inner peace. She was still a bit groggy and hadn't a clue as to what he was talking about.

"What glitch?"

"You used to call me Geils. " He explained and continued, annoyed: "Stupid Spike didn't bother to program my name right into your..." He wasn't sure _what_ to call it. "...brain?"

Buffy understood. Giles had shown a special interest in her alter ego from their very first encounter. He had constantly been staring at the robot, much to her annoyance and now he'd asked Willow to activate the robot. Without telling his Slayer! What he hadn't counted on was finding the real Buffy here. Dawn had developed a headache and they had to cancel their shopping spree.

Buffy was about to explain the mistake when she suddenly got a wicked thought. She was actually a little hurt that he was deceiving her in this way and decided he needed to be taught a lesson.

"Yes." she said and repeated his name as if she had practiced it recently to get it right. "Giles. Giles. Giles. Giles."

She regarded him blankly, hiding her inside pleasure on the prank she would play on him.

"Did Willow do any other repairs on you?" Giles wanted to know and rose to move closer to her.

Buffy felt distinctly uncomfortable under his gaze. Giles would never look that way at the real Buffy. She tried not to blink or shift. It would give her away. Robots didn't get nervous under scrutiny. Robots didn't get nervous. Period.

She met his gaze with Buffybot's carefree artificial smile and watched as he moved to sit on his heels in front of her, eye level with the robot. The sudden closeness was stifling. She tried to keep her voice lighthearted and business-like when she answered his question.

"I don't know what Willow repaired. One minute I was saving your life from one of Glory's minions and the next I am her in the exercise room with Willow."

Giles couldn't resist the urge to lean forward to study her features more carefully. The fact that the being in front of him showed no reaction whatsoever when he leaned in, gave him the courage to blatantly stare at the familiar face up close. He wouldn't dream of subjecting his Slayer to such an insolent breach of her privacy. He'd also refrained from studying Buffybot in the presence of its original. That would have been disrespectful - not to mention extremely inappropriate, but now that he was awarded a good look at the robot, he marvelled at the ingenuity and accuracy of the work.

The brown eyes were gleaming and -amazingly enough- full of life. Her skin actually glistened a bit and the designer had even worked in some flaws to make her more real. Giles noticed some vague freckles on the cheeks and there was the hint of a scar on her forehead, a slightly different shade than her skin, but accurately there. He winced when he remembered how Buffy had gotten that scar. It was when he had drugged his Slayer, so she would lose her powers temporarily to prepare her for the Council's test. Buffy had fought Kralick and won, but she hadn't left the battlefield undamaged, neither mentally nor physically. That scar told Giles never to betray her trust again and here he was, going behind her back, studying her alter ego.

His hand went up to touch the irregular pinkish imperfection on her forehead and Buffybot pulled away slightly. He was so caught up in his thoughts that he'd forgotten that, although she was robot, she could react very life-like.

"May I ?"

Buffy gave him permission with a nod. This felt very strange. Giles being assertive and crossing the boundaries of her personal space? He usually went all British and stiff upper lip on her when things skidded towards physical contact. She felt a tingle in her belly when his cool fingers touched her skin. Other senses were also instantly activated by the sudden intimacy between them. She smelled his musky scent combined with a whiff of aftershave and she was drawn into his lovely, kind green eyes, now filled with eagerness to learn about this amazing device. And then she saw that spark of grief in his eyes as his finger traced the scar that was a constant reminder of the fact that they were almost driven apart forever.

Buffy's mischievously meant prank was rapidly turning dead serious. Something had decidely changed. Giles displayed emotions in front of Buffybot, he would never show  _her_  and she wasn't sure if she wanted to see them. It scared her and moved her at the same time. She was suddenly very aware of the fact that this was wrong. She shouldn't be deceiving Giles in this way.

"You like?" she said, hoping to lighten things up, so she could start thinking about a way out of this without him being suspicious.

He had no idea what this closeness was doing to her and to keep him oblivious she had to act before he would notice her uneasiness. She was dizzy from the strain of keeping a straight face and suddenly, there was a peculiar flush coursing through her body driving home to her loins. She was almost certain that he would notice how she broke out in a sweat.

"Mmmmh?"

"Am I a spitting image?"

To her relief, he abandoned his close observation. He stood and helped her up, but didn't let go of her hand. The sensation of his thumb stroking the palm of her hand, told her that he hadn't quite finished examining her yet.

"Well, you seem to be a very accurate copy of the original." he said, inspecting the soft skin under his thumb. " But I would also like to learn about your fighting skills and your factual knowledge on the subject of Buffy Summers."

"Fighting skills?"

"That's what I said, yes."

He looked up at her and was completely taken by surprise when she tackled him, threw him over her shoulder and made him land hard on his back on the mat. Before he could crawl back to his feet she had straddled him and leaned over him, pinning his arms on the floor above his head.

"Like that?"

It always felt good to intimidate him with her Slayer strength, especially when he'd subtly made it clear to her that he was her better in intellectual matters. She loved to exert her physical superiority over men and because Giles was pretty much the only  _living_  man she was allowed to show that power on occasion, she savoured it every time. He always looked so helpless and stupified when she surprised him with it. She knew her Watcher was very proud of her fighting skills - he was less happy with the fact that he was always at the receiving end during their workouts.

"Yes, well, ...I'm sure Spike would have built that in. He likes a good fight."

"Spike didn't built me for my fighting skills." Buffy said, releasing his arms. She settled back on his lap, drew her knees closer around his hips and looked up into his eyes provocatively.

"No, no I suppose he didn't." Giles felt his anger boiling up at the thought why Spike had built the robot.  _Bloody pervert_!

"Do you want to test these other skills too?"

She caught the alarmed, wide-eyed gaze of the man beneath her and realized with horror that she'd actually spoken out loud. When she noticed how he hesitated to answer that question, she searched his eyes and for the first time in all their years together she saw a longing in them. A _need_. And that's when it struck her light a bolt of lightening. He was actually considering her proposition. With great difficulty she managed to keep the bewilderment inside and clamped her teeth together to keep her jaw from dropping. Had he been having fuzzy feelings for her too?

Right from the very start Buffy had fantasized about her Watcher on and off. Fantasies about the man beneath all those layers of tweed. Especially after the mind-reading experience when she'd caught fragments of her mom's thoughts about Giles being a stevedore during sex - she'd actually looked the word up but that had left her none the wiser. She had never shared these silly fantasies with anyone, let alone act upon them. It would endanger their friendship, not to mention their working relationship. It would turn their whole world upside down in a time when the fate of mankind depended on them. And besides..... Giles wasn't interested in her that way - at least that's what she thought. And now she suddenly found herself in a position where she could actually act upon her curiosity about her Watcher, without ever having to deal with the consequences. She was Buffybot; designed to please. He need never know that he was dealing with the real thing.

She straightened up, resolved to let this go wherever it would take her. She repeated the question but it only made him blush because the friction in his lap made it impossible for him to keep his body from stating the bleeding obvious. Buffy took that as a firm confirmation. She smiled and now it was her turn to hit him with a scrutinizing look.

"Do you want me the way Spike wants me?"

She couldn't believe she'd actually asked him that. This was Giles! Her Watcher! Her friend and mentor! What was she thinking?  _Please let him say yes!_ She could keep this up and he need never know the truth. They could both indulge in their fantasy without any repercussions. No awkward morning after. No claims. No bonds. No ties. No love. No regrets. Just plain, simple, mindless sex with the man who had intrigued her throughout high school and had always been unattainable.

"That would be wrong." He finally said, his voice somewhat shaky, which took the sting out of his statement.

She nodded knowingly and smiled again. "That would be very wrong...if I were Buffy."

They were both nodding now and suddenly the air between them was filled with the tension of endless possibilities.

"But I'm not Buffy..."

The slow shake of her head was mirrored by Giles as his eyes locked with hers.

"Giles, do you want me?" she sounded so serious that she was sure she had given herself away in that moment were it not that Giles seemed to have lost his capacity for rational thought.

The evidence in his trousers was all the answer she needed but she wanted to hear him say it. She craved confirmation, preferably verbal, of the fact that he too had been suppressing the urge to explore his feelings about her all these years. That she hadn't been the only one fantasizing about how it would be if they were together.

"Buffy...bot..., it would be wrong." His voice sounded feeble and the heat in his dark eyes contradicted what he'd just said. "Absolutely and utterly, extremely wrong in every sense of the word."

"It'll be our little secret." she said and added: "Wrong can be very exciting."

She was sure that any moment now he would see right through her and expose her as the real Buffy, but he gave her a long heated look that raised both their body temperatures by several degrees.

" _Very_ exciting..." his voice was a mere whisper now and his gaze wandered to her lips.

That was her cue. She lowered herself towards him, giving him ample opportunity to stop her from making a fool of herself and kissed him, slowly - lightly grazed his lips with her mouth. When he didn't react at all, she drew back to study the effect of that simple kiss that had unexpectedly sent a jolt of passion through her veins. Giles' eyes had taken on that familiar, conflicted expression of a man split in two - desperatly trying to cling on to common sense, knowing full well that he'd already lost the battle. 

 

 

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

"O, Willow!"

 "Hi Giles!"

"I just wanted to thank you for the work you did on Buffybot."

She gave him a curious look and tried to determine if he was being sarcastic. But Giles seemed unusually cheerful this morning, when he found her in the shop behind the largest volume of the Eagerian Encyclopedia of Spells.

"You did a marvellous job on her!"

"I did? Uhm…, I'm sorry Giles... I don't know what you mean."

"Sorry?"

"I didn't get 'round to it, because first Tara and I were teaching Buffy this new trance thing and then we had to research the spell we wanted to use on Glory and that's why I forgot all about it. Did you wait for me long?"

"Y….you …..mean you  _didn't_  activate her?"

"No, she's probably still in the storage room. I'll be happy to do it now."

Giles didn't answer, but his eyes had adopted a strange, almost panicy stare, which urged Willow to look over her shoulder to see if there was a demon behind her.

"Giles?"

And then he just fell backwards with a loud thud.

"Giles!"

Willow rushed to his side and kneeled down beside him, relieved to see that he was already coming round again.

"What's the matter with you? Are you sick?"

He came to his senses and she helped him up. She found his glasses and placed them on his nose. He was still unsteady on his feet and Willow suggested that he'd lie down for a while.

"Shall I get Buffy to drive you home? She'll be here in a minute to pick me up."

He looked at her in shock.

" _She's on her way over_?"

His voice was verging on panic now.

"Giles, what's wrong?"

He took hold of her and spoke urgently and fast.

"Willow, whatever you do, don't mention we've had this conversation. And don't ever mention that I know that you didn't activate Buffybot. _Ever!_ Promise me Willow. Not to a living soul and especially not to Buffy."

Aghast by his behavior Willow nodded and promised she wouldn't although she didn't understand why it was so important. Giles acted as if his life depended on it and she would do anything to save his life. It made her a tad uneasy that she would have to deceive Buffy.

Giles released her and staggered to the backroom, undoubtedly to splash some cold water in his face to sober up... or possibly to throw up, from the look of him.

When Buffy arrived, Willow did her best to act as if nothing had happened and greeted her cheerfully.

"Did you see Giles already?"

"No" Willow said and wondered why she'd already begun to lie. "I ....uh...I think I heard him stumbling in the backroom."

When Buffy grabbed her arm and leaned in with a conspiratorial look in her eyes Willow felt a slight nausea coming up. It was obvious that something bad had happened between Slayer and Watcher and she was going to get caught in the middle.

"Willow, if he asks you something about Buffybot, please lie to him."

_See...,_  she thought.  _...caught in the middle. Lie to your friends_.

"Say that you activated her last night and that you then deactivated her again this morning."

"But..."  _..Giles already knows that I didn't get round to it and Giles doesn't want you to know about that and he was all panicy about that and I should stop thinking now before I do some serious damage here by saying stuff out loud._

"But what...?

"Nothing. I'll lie."

At that moment Giles returned from the bathroom looking very pale.

"Hi, Giles."

Buffy's voice had the effect of a small electric shock that made him jump a little. He cleared his throat before he spoke.

"Buffy...".

Then there was silence.

Willow briefly wondered if she had woken up in an alternate universe this morning. This was the most awkward silence she'd ever had the privilege to witness.The embarrassment and shame was almost tangible in the air.

"So, shall we go?" she asked Buffy, who was emphatically ignoring her Watcher.

"All set and ready."

Buffy sounded carefree enough, but Willow saw the strange twitch in her right eye and the curious smile that resembled a wince.

"Bye Giles."

"Bye."

The encounter between them lasted less than a minute, but neither of them had dared to look the other in the eye.

 

                                                                                                                **********

 

In the car, Willow could not stand the brooding silent chauffeur next to her and asked straight out.

"Soooo...... what happened between you two?"

Buffy parked the car on the side of the road, gave her a long look and decided she had to tell someone or else she would explode.

"Giles tried out a large variety of techniques described in the Kama Sutra with Buffybot last night."

"But I never had time to activate her!" Wilow offered helpfully, as if this would clear up the mystery that was bothering both her friends. "I mean you must have run in to him yesterday. I was supposed to meet him at the shop."

One look at Buffy told her that this was exactly what had happened. And that knowledge combined with their weird behavior this morning added up to a very strange scenario that slowly began to dawn on Willow. Giles and Buffybot had been making out in the backroom, only Buffybot was Buffy and she'd let him.

"Gosh, Buffy..." was all she could manage. "The Kama Sutra?"

She suddenly got a vision of Giles kissing Buffy while studying pictures of various positions in that book over her shoulder. It made her shudder.

"What am I gonna do? If he finds out it'll change everything."

What am _I_ going to do!, Willow thought. He'd already found out and for him the world had been turned upside down. Clearly Giles had also decided to have Buffy believe that he is still ignorant of the fact that she lured him. Well, he would have been if Willow hadn't filled him in.

"Do you want him to find out?"

"He would never forgive me Willow. It started out as a prank and then things got real serious and, well...wild but Will, ...I've never ever have had such a wonderful experience in my entire life!"

"Are you in love with him?"

"Does that involve not being able to stop thinking about him, getting a funny tickling feeling when I think about him and feeling all warm and flushed when I see him?"

"That bad, huh?"

"Willow, I can't believe this is happening to me. This is _Giles_ we're talking about. He's been a part of my everyday life for over four years now and I've never felt this way about him."

"Must have been  _some_  book."

"Huh?"

"The Kama Sutra."

"Will!"

"Well, would it help if I told you that everyone but you had always wondered about Giles' feelings for you? Weren't you getting tired of Xander's comments about the two of you working together so closely. He had seen the way he looked at you and he recognized that look only too well, because he's into looks like that himself where you're concerned. And Faith could be downright blunt about you two. She is a very keen observer."

"Willow, what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that we all know that Giles loves you. Why do you think he is so devoted to you and why do you think he never had a normal social life? He's handsome enough for a man his age, but he never even tried to invite some happiness into his life. You were his life. Still are."

Buffy looked at her dumfounded. It seemed like Giles had always been part of her life, inconspicious and reliable, like the nine o'clock news. He was her mentor, her trainer, her rock when she was at aloss and sometimes he was God when he saved her life. He was her doctor, her psychiatrist, her stressdummy and her sounding board. Giles was a man of many talents and as a Watcher he was trained as such. Buffy had always taken his devotion to the job and to his Slayer for granted. Never in a million years had she considered the possibility that the man might love her like that. How could he? She was just a girl when they met. They were so different. He was a stodgy, stuffy old guy who always had his nose in some ancient book. Buffy wanted to party, enjoy life and experiment. They were like fire and rain most of the time.

"I never knew Giles liked me that way."

"Giles doesn't just like you, Buffy. He loves you."

"I know that." Buffy said a little annoyed. " He's told me that often enough. But there's a big difference between loving and lusting."

Willow raised an eyebrow and gave Buffy an ambiguous look.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I have actually heard of this thing where people who fall in love are overcome with the strong desire to touch each other. You know, these uncontrollable automated reactions that we get when we like someone. Pupils dilate, heart rate goes up and you start feeling all funny and wobbly inside…. Imagine how Giles must have fought this all these years, and last night he saw an opportunity to give in to these feelings with a surrogate, just this once. In a weak moment, he just simply gave in I guess…"

"Well, it wasn't exactly like that." Buffy admitted with a quizzical look. "I might have really kinda lured him...maybe? I reminded him of why Spike made me…. Buffybot, I mean and I sort of ...kinda asked him if he wanted to try out these specific functions. So I guess it was not entirely his fault..."

Her voice died somewhere in her throat when she saw Willow's face turn red as a ruby and her eyes grew wide.

"O, Will, what am I gonna do?"

Willow tried to speak, tried to be there for her friend but all she could muster was a slight movement of the lips, while she was fighting the images that flashed by like a sordid B-movie. Images of the Kama Sutra and Buffy - with Giles.

"Will, this is really bad right?"

Willow just shrugged. She honestly had no idea about how this would develop.

"Maybe it'll just blow over?" Buffy said hopeful. "Giles still thinks he did the naughty thing with Buffybot. He need never know….."

She looked at Willow in the hope she would support the idea, but one look at her told her how deeply in trouble she was.

"Too late, huh?"

Willow nodded.

"When?"

"I told him I didn't get around to activating Buffybot last night." She took Buffy's hand. "I'm sorry, Buffy."

"Don't be. I got myself into this mess….I'm gonna have to get myself out again too. I'm going to talk to Giles tonight."

 

 


End file.
